ENCOURAGEMENT-HOW TO GET THROUGH TOUGH TIMES

How can you live with depression and discouragement in your life? It is one of the hardest questions to understand and one I have to process over and over. I read something recently that really spoke and helped me deal with difficult things in my life.

I will remember. Remember what, you might ask?

One of the best ways to survive the packages of pain God allows in our lives is by remembering who God is and what He has done in the past.

"Andrew Murray made a list 'to remember.' His words put dark days and nights in perspective. In 1895 he was in England suffering from a terribly painful back, the result of an injury incurred years before. One morning, while he was eating breakfast in his room, his hostess told him of a woman downstairs who was in great trouble and wanted to know if he had any advice for her. Andrew Murray handed her a paper he had been writing on and said, 'Give her this advice I'm writing down for myself. It may be that she'll find it helpful.'

This is what he wrote:
'In time of trouble, say, "First he brought me here. It is by his will I am in this strait place; in that I will rest. He will keep me here in his lOve and give me grace in this trial to behave as his child. He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons he intends me to learn and working in me the grace he means to bestow. In his good time he can bring me out again. How and when he knows."

Therefore say, "I am here by 1) God's apppointment, 2) in his keeping, 3) under his training, 4) in his time."
Linda Dillow-Calm My Anxious Heart

That is the only way I can survive tough times. Knowing He loves me and by His grace!

Encouragement for the Struggles

"There are times in every life
when we feel hurt or alone...
But I believe that these times
when we feel lost
and all around us seems
to be falling apart
are really bridges of growth.

We struggle and try to recapture
the security of what was,
but almost in spite of ourselves...
we emerge on the other side
with a new understanding,
a new awareness,
a new strength.

It is almost as though
we must go through the pain
and the struggle
in order to grow
and reach new heights."
Sue Mitchell

We become more adept at rising to the challenge each time we go through something hard. Every time we come through--with flying colors or just barely--gives us another deposit in our emotional bank account of courage, confidence and creativity to keep going to the next step in our journey.

Never give up.
Go towards your goal.
You will make it.

Encouragement for Tough Times

A wise man once said, "Whatever came to me, I looked on as God's gift for some special purpose. If it was a difficulty, I knew He gave it to me to struggle with, to strengthen my mind and my faith."

A Japanese proverb says, "Fall seven times, stand up eight."

E.H. Chapin said, "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls."

The Bible(Psalms 31:24) says, "Be of good courage."

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this...I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Eleanor Roosevelt